Creature Comforts: The Art of Pets & Animals

July 27 - September 5, 2025

Studio ACE presents Creature Comforts: The Art of Pets and Animals, a juried exhibition celebrating the profound presence of animals in our lives—wild and domestic, real and imagined. This show explores the deep connections we share with our animal companions and the creative inspiration they provide. We are honored to welcome internationally-collected Oceanside artist Michael Summers—creator of ACE’s beloved Be Kind mural—as our guest juror.

Snoozing Morani

I got to know Morani, an endangered black rhino, in 2000 as part of the Earthwatch study “Saving Kenya’s Black Rhinos” on Sweetwaters Research Centre near Mt Kenya. He had been orphaned by poachers and was repeatedly introduced into the wild but each time was injured by other young rhinos. So it was decided to give him his own enclosure where he lived for 19 years. He was tame from living with the rangers who stayed with him 24 hours a day to fend off poachers, and so we were able to get very close to this normally aggressive animal. He died in 2007 of natural causes.

Artist Alliance Biennial 2019

Oceanside Museum of Art

December 21, 2019 – May 31, 2020

OMA is proud to announce its fourth biennial juried members’ exhibition. This exhibition features a cross-section of the most noteworthy artwork from the museum’s talented members. An integral part of OMA’s mission is supporting local and regional artists.

Southern California’s cultural landscape is diverse and growing, which is reflected in the burgeoning talent in this exhibition of OMA’s Artist Alliance members.

Piercing

Artist Alliance at the Museum 2017

Oceanside Museum of Art

March 4 - August 27, 2017

"OMA is proud to present its third juried Artist Alliance members’ exhibition. 92 artworks were chosen from more than 900 submissions, representing artists working in a wide variety of media and exploringa diverse range of subjects and styles. Juried by Karen McGuire of the Canon Gallery in Carlsbad and Sue Greenwood of Sue Greenwood Fine Art in Laguna Beach, this exhibition features a cross-section of the most noteworthy artwork from OMA’s talented artist members."

"Oh What a Tangled Web We Weave"

This image was captured early one dew-laden morning in the fall, possibly the work of a black widow spider. The title comes from an excerpt of the epic poem Marmion, by Sir Walter Scott about the Scotland-England Battle of Flodden, which came to mind inspired by the recent political climate:

"Oh! what a tangled web we weave When first we practise to deceive!"